This invention relates to gemstone positioning fixtures, and in particular to such fixtures generally for use in connection with engravements made with electron beam or ion beam sources.
New technology has emerged in the jewelry and gemstone industry that allows for the nano-engraving of the table of a polished gemstone, so small as to not be visible to the naked human eye, or even with a common 10× loop. This nano-engraving is done with sophisticated focused ion beams (charged particles) that ablate the surface of the gemstone on the scale of about 30 nanometers deep. The targeting and manipulation of the ion beam is done on such a small scale, and with such power, that the charged ion particles are prone to build up an electrical charge on the surface of gemstone as it is engraved. This build-up of electrical charge can cause the ion beam to spread or distort, resulting in an unpredictable engravement on the gem table surface. Current practice requires preparing the gemstone for engraving using a conductive coating like gold, and then affixing the coated gemstone to a grounded fixture using a conductive adhesive. This process requires specialized handling of the gemstones requiring extra time and adding the risk of breaking of fragile parts the gemstone. Additionally, the use of adhesives and grounding holders allows for significant misalignment of the individual gemstones that must be corrected in time consuming programming of the focused ion beam device.
This invention relates to improvements to the systems described above, and to solutions to some of the problems raised or not solved thereby.